Monday, September 5, 2011
Desperate For Tax Revenue.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Riots in the real world
As the MSM frets and bothers in the wake of the riots, the real world outside the bubble gets on with the job of clearing up. A good friend of mine works at a 6th-form college not far from Croydon, and has some interesting observations.
Real people and their anecdotal evidence offer three advantages over journalists. They don’t have an agenda, they aren’t getting paid for their opinions, and they tend to live in the places hit worst by social unrest because they have to not, unlike many young journalists resident in Hoxton, Brick Lane and Hackney, because it’s hip. They see things happen rather than read about them on Twitter.
My friend – we’ll call him Paul – has three main observations.
Firstly, on A-level results day, the college was suddenly buzzing with student life again after the silence of the holidays [Paul works there year round]. The students had come in to get their results. More than that, though, many of them had clearly come in to show off their new acquisitions: box-fresh trainers, jewellery, designer clothing and other shiny things. Youth violence, Paul has overheard students claiming, is now increasingly about one gang trying to access the ‘horde’ of a rival gang.
Secondly, and also concerning gangs, is the revelation which disgusted me most. There are, at Paul’s estimation, 70 to 80 known gang members at the college. The teaching staff, in addition to the rest of their onerous duties, have to organise an entirely unofficial rota system to ensure that students from rival gangs don’t attend the same lessons. This wearying logistical exercise is, of course, unrecognised and unpaid.
Thirdly, Paul spoke to two rather sensible, grounded girls whose stories seemed entirely plausible. They told Paul about their area on the worst night of rioting. Two hundred or so locals had come on to the streets to defend their property and businesses. At one point, some wannabe looters had appeared on bikes and made for a local shop. One of them was quite badly beaten, in full view of the police, who took the failed looter away when the local people were finished with him. None of this made even the local newspaper. Even more than copycat rioting, the establishment fears copycat vigilantism, unless it is carried out by approved ethnic groups. As I once opined to a friend concerning Islamist terrorism, the one thing government fears more than radicalised mosques is radicalised pubs.
The testament of real people, bloggers included; accept nothing less.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Rioting, Part two.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Rioting.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Annual Eton Sports Day.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Right On.
Friday, July 29, 2011
When Somebody Tries.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Norway. The country with dignity.
Today Norway was hit by two shocking and bloody and cowardly attacks.A sensible and pragmatic speech.
We still do not know who attacked us; much is still uncertain.
But we know that many are dead and injured.
We are all shocked at the evil that has struck us so brutally and so suddenly
This night demands much of all of us.
And the days that follow will demand even more
We are prepared to face up to this.
Norway hangs together during critical times.
We mourn our dead, we suffer with the injured, and we comfort relatives.
This is about attacks on innocent civilians, on young people at summer camp.
An attack on all of us.
I have a message to the people who attacked us, and those behind them.
This is a message from all of Norway:
You will not destroy us.
You will not destroy our democracy nor our quest for a better world.
We are a small nation, but we are a proud nation.
No one shall bomb us into silence or shoot us into silence.
Nothing will frighten us out of being Norway.
This night we will comfort each other, talk with each other, and stand together.
Tomorrow we will show the world that Norway’s democracy grows stronger when it is challenged.
We shall find the guilty and hold them responsible.
The important thing tonight is to save lives, to care for the victims and their loved ones
I would like to state my recognition for the work of the police, the medics,
and all the other people who currently do such formidable work
to help others, healing injures and saving lives.
We must never cease to stand up for our values.
We have to show that our open society can pass this test, too,
And that the answer to violence is even more democracy,
even more humanity, but never naïveté.
That is what we owe to the victims and to the those they hold dear.
In this country of ours, we would most likely have our Prime Minister telling us that “Lessons will be learnt”, and bombing us a raft of further oppressive legislation.
My sympathies in this most troubling time.
Friday, July 22, 2011
As Ever.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Here's A Thought.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
The Surprising Inevitability.
Friday, July 15, 2011
A Blessed Relief.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
A Biblical Waste.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Squeaky voices
If we were so minded, we could take The Independent headline and its story and rewrite them, better to reflect the reality. Rather than say that a question mark now hangs over Cameron's judgement, however, we would have to resort to the use of rather more words. Thus might we say:
After years of stumbling around in the dark, ignoring the self-evident and blindingly obvious fact that Cameron's judgement is and always has been suspect over a very wide range of issues, we have at last discovered that he is a seriously flawed man and have decided to present our discovery to you in the guise of "news", thereby assuming that you are so thick that you hadn't already noticed and that you need to pay us clever people to tell you.Now, we admit that this does not have quite the same immediacy and striking power as a Sun headline. But then we am not clever like wot these professional journalists are, who are at the centre of things and know what's really going down.
On the other hand, we could say that the Fourth Estate, in now reporting that which most of the nation already knew, is having to deal the embarrassment of playing catch-up. And this is the best they can do.
What must be terrifying these little dears, though, is the parallel discovery that so many people had come to their conclusions unaided, without the mighty MSM to guide them. The brighter ones may even be putting two and two together, realising that most people don't actually need their clever commentary in order to know what to think.
Even then, old habits die hard. Still, they chase after that single, elusive thing that they all strive after: setting the agenda. That, they think, is where their power lies – not as yet realising that the world has changed forever. They have lost their monopoly control of information, and are just squeaky voices, competing for a hearing in the growing cacophony.
Friday, July 8, 2011
If Honour Existed.
"The events that have unfolded in the past few weeks, culminating in the closure of The News of The World and the arrest of its former editor and my initial appointment as Press Secretary, Andrew Coulson, I make the following statement:
Jedward Miliband.
"In light of The Prime Minister's statement I am duly bound to reply. On behalf of The Labour party I can categorically state that the behaviour of Alistair Campbell, whilst holding the post of Press Secretary to Tony Blair, was far cleverer, more devious and successful in not getting caught out, than Coulson. I therefore divorce myself from all previous dealings, over circa 18 years that my party had with News International.
The lavish parties, yachts and private jets, employed on our behalf by Rupert Murdoch, were all for the well being and good of The Labour movement. Our economic legacy proves how little influence they had on our great period in office. To this end I shall resist the call by Mr Cameron not to contest the forthcoming election. Indeed I can state at this press conference that any manifesto pledges and guarantees not to drive The Nation even deeper into debt, will be reneged upon, as soon as we enter Office once more, in order to continue the traditions of sleaze and corruption for which all British political parties are rightly famous. Thank you."
Nicklearse Clegg.
"It is my duty to respond to the statements of my right dishonourable dear friends, The Prime Minister and the leader Of The Labour Party. This moment is a tipping point in the politics of this once great country now brought to its knees by the years of corrupt and corrosive relationships of the other two parties. Whilst their underhand and despicable governance has led us to the brink of destruction, my party, under my leadership, has kept the only hope of salvation we have alive.
My confidential and secret meetings with our great European State has kept the door open to sacrifice our future for the good of the moral, upright and totally incorruptible Federal European States. I am therefore able to announce my party will fight the next election funded wholly by the European Commission.
Subject to the inevitable victory, if not at the first time of asking then at the re-run, in which the financial burden will no longer permit any opposition , I will immediately close Parliament and subsume all future governance to The EUSSR. I am guaranteed that this State Of Liberata will have the extreme honour of providing the very first ever President of The EUSSR unified in the dream of a 1984 Utopian existence. Thank you."
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Already?
Forget financial meltdown, political storms and violent protests. Forget job losses, bankruptcies, heartache and suffering. Already the main topic of conversation and real interest throughout the corridors of power, is the great August EU shut down. Regardless of any consequences, the real head honchos hand over the reins to the dogs body wannabees.
The truly mighty fuck off for many weeks of indulgence. Fully stuffed with their ill gotten gains, squeezed from suckers like us. The luxury yacht crews are busy readying for the orgies of indulgence, the private jets are polished and fuelled and the invitations to the pleasure domes already embossed in gold for their missive welcomes.
A new haven for a quiet raping of a compliant and desperately grateful, less surly servitude, is up and running. Corfu confined to the blazing inferno of the Greek meltdown. Since money is no object we have built a new and ever more exclusive pleasure palace and marina. Welcome all those corrupt enough to visit.
In on the beginning of this creation was Kiddyfiddler and his mates, in 2008. How it's done in that world. Just three years later we have a summary of this post. and a picture for you to slaver over.
Would I wish to or would I indulge in all of this. I can honestly say no. Such gatherings should be to celebrate a stable, decent world. Contrast it with the drought in Africa and ask if this wealth could make a difference? I suspect it could in the right hands. Such hands no longer exist, it would seem.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
A Difficult Definition
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Media Frenzy.
Monday, July 4, 2011
This is what happens when you give the job to amateurs
We keep sending more and more of our recycling to landfill, apparently. According to her pals over at DEFRA, it's gone up by 50,000 tons in two years: everybody involved somehow contrives to keep the total recycling figure a secret from we readers - to hide an inconvenient fact such as a drop in the percentage being sent to landfill perhaps?
Of course, it's all our fault.
"Environmental groups have blamed councils for failing to educate households about which materials to put in the recycling bin.."
= We're thick.
"Recycling has to be dumped if it is "contaminated" with the wrong material, for example smashed glass put in alongside newspapers.."
= We're thick
"Mal Williams, of the Campaign for Real Recycling, blamed the system where councils collect different streams, like paper, plastic and cardboard in one bag".
= We need to separate rubbish more and we need more bins.
"Up to 10 per cent of the material has to be dumped because it is mixed with the wrong materials, such as bottle tops and food waste".
= We're thick.
"Julian Kirby, a campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said that councils must make sure the material collected for recycling is processed correctly rather than dumped or burned".
= We're thick and so are our councils.
"It's not just how much recycling we do that's important, it's also how we do it," he said. Gary Porter, the chairman of the Local Government Association Environment Board.."
= I'm paid a great deal of money to state the bleedin' obvious.
"The vast majority of people do the right thing, which is great. But the slight increase in contamination rates demonstrates why it is important for councils to be able to identify and work with people who misunderstand or make mistakes when sorting their rubbish."
= We're thick - but some of us are thicker than others and will need to be sent to special re-education camps.
The real answer is to stop producing crap for which there is no purpose other than to be thrown away. Time Traveller Boy II went to the shop today to buy a product from the world's richest 'concerned environmentalist'. The product was a number which could have been printed on his sales receipt.
Instead, as you'll see from the picture above, it came printed on a card, laid into a dvd-sized tray of indeterminate material, in a cardboard sleeve...
At least TTBoyII had the good sense to decline a bag to put it in.
Time Traveller blogs at Adventures in Time Travel